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Hopefully you will run at least a 100amps out to the garage. If you can run a 200 that would be better but may not be feasable. If you have 100 amp, you could charge probably safely at the 40amp charging. If you ahve 200 amp service out there then you would be safe with the 80amp charging. But who knows if the model 3 will have 80 amp charging. Maybe one of the ways its cheaper is it only charges at 40amps

Pro/cons, insurance, pickup. I am not from your area (I'm in Omaha) but I can answer for you from my experiences. Should be a great car (the S is) in many ways with great customer service (my experience); cons, only one for me is charging when out of town and in bad weather (you have to plan more, CHAdeMO is fast if there are any on your way along with the Tesla SuperChargers); and they deliver to your door the S and X. I imagine they will do the same with the 3 but who knows. My insurance is 20% higher than my previous four year old smaller Lexus which is cheap because it is worth four times the old car. Area and company determine insurance rates.

Hopefully you will run at least a 100amps out to the garage. If you can run a 200 that would be better but may not be feasable. If you have 100 amp, you could charge probably safely at the 40amp charging. If you ahve 200 amp service out there then you would be safe with the 80amp charging. But who knows if the model 3 will have 80 amp charging. Maybe one of the ways its cheaper is it only charges at 40amps

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Given what your garage may be expected to function, I'd agree with 100 amps to the main breaker for it. Running only 50 Amps (you have to run that much for a NEMA 14-50 which provides 40 Amps continuous draw) means this is all your garage can do. If it's a two-car garage, and you're going all-in for all-electric (and seriously, who isn't, eventually going to drive electric?), then Fezzik is right, if you can handle that much. Also, have you considered putting solar on the new garage?

Keep in mind, the amps you require on your panel apply to when all of the electrical devices are in use. If you charge your car overnight, you probably aren't using your oven / clothes dryer / computers, etc all at the same time. I keep my Leaf and Model S charged easily with a single 50 amp circuit, using the timer feature of both cars. With a little planning, you can save a large expense of electrical and wiring.

Does anyone live in Royal Oak area willing and able to meet to talk about pros/cons, insurance, picking it up and all other aspects that I am missing to ask of ownership?

In addition to looking to order Model 3, we are considering building a garage this summer and want to be sure we get the power we need from the garage as well.

Obviously no rush, but end of March is approaching

thanks

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I would go no larger than 100 amps. We charge two EVs from 60 amps and are quite happy with it. The knee jerk reaction we all have is to feed a large battery car like a Tesla with all the power it will take (40 or 80 amps), but all that is needed is enough current to replace the average miles you drive in a day. For example, we charge our X with 110v 10 amps from 4 solar panels and add 40 - 60 miles a night. See my article in EVents about it. Installing a separate meter will just incur meter charges that wipe out any savings for time of day discounts. I hate to give the power companies perfectly good money for no reason.

200a and even 100a is very likely massive overkill. Unless you need it for a welder or something.

We have a 240v/40a at our main house and a 120v/15a at our beach house where we'll oven spend a month or two at a time. That's been fine for our P85D for over 2 years and with an X being added I'll not upgrade anything. If building a completely new house where the cost difference was marginal I'd do 240v/100a (for both cars) for just-in-case scenarios but otherwise wouldn't spend the money. Depending on your local codes, you might need to upgrade your main panel and the copper for 100 or 200 instead of 40 or 60 can be considerable.

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